Due to a change in plans, our family essentially “skipped” Thanksgiving in the sense that we didn’t do any holiday parties, we didn’t have traditional Thanksgiving foods, we didn’t scan the ads for amazing deals, and we didn’t see any extended family members or friends.
Before you click away, thinking we are a family of Scrooges, please just read through to the end… the whole weekend was a revolutionary experience for Dave and me, and I just had to share!
Roughly 10 weeks ago, I shared a “fun” challenge here on the blog — the opportunity to complete a FULL HOUSE PURGE before the New Year even began!
Since then, I’ve been diligently working through one room per week, and the results have paid off! I even surprised myself with the amount of stuff we purged!
Wherever you are on your holiday shopping progress, you’re bound to have at least one person on your list that you JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO GIVE THEM! Right?
Today I’m sharing a fantastic (and clutter-free) gift idea for those difficult-to-buy-for people on your list this year! Also, I have a discount code!!
Just over 5 weeks ago, I shared my plan to complete a full-house purge BEFORE the New Year, and since then, I’ve completed 5 rooms in our house.
I’m sharing my progress in today’s post, as well as a little motivation and encouragement for those of you who are following along with my one-room-per-week plan (or for those of you who want to get started).
I don’t know if it’s simply because Dave is a teacher and I know how much time, effort, and energy they put into teaching their students every single day, but I’m much more willing to splurge on one of my children’s teachers than I am on any other non-family member.
I realize teacher gifts aren’t something every parent is so passionate about… but if you’re looking for a few clutter-free teacher gift ideas, I think today’s post will help — hopefully with plenty of time to put something nice together before the holidays!
In general, I would say I almost never make impulse purchases. I’m also not the best at treating myself or doing extra-special things for myself “just because”.
Today, I’m sharing how one small thing brought so much joy to my life… and I’m encouraging you to think about how you can bring more joy to your life “just because”.
A day off from work and school for Labor Day is one of Dave’s favorite things about starting school before this holiday weekend. It’s such a nice little break after the first couple weeks of school. And seriously, how is it September already!?!?!?!?!
Today I’m sharing a few more of my favorite things — and you might notice my post went live 2 hours earlier (hopefully for the foreseeable future!)
Over the past 8 years, the number of questions, comments, and requests I’ve gotten regarding my digital photo books is CRAZY!
So, in honor of the fact that James’ 2-year photo book just arrived, hot-off-the-press, and the fact that my photo book posts are some of the most requested posts on my blog, I’m compiling all the information I have on my blog, to-date, in one concise post!
You know how much I love lists… right? Well, I don’t literally have a “don’t-do list”, but I do have a mental list of things that I’ve specifically chosen NOT to spend my time on.
Obviously my list will be different than yours… but if you’ve never tried making a don’t-do list before, I have a feeling you will benefit from it.
A couple months ago, I asked for any brilliant ideas and/or opinions about how we should renovate the full bathroom off our kitchen — and wow, did you respond!
SOOOOOO many fantastic ideas, suggestions, opinions, etc. Dave and I actually went back to the “drawing board” and ultimately ended up changing our plans for this space, thanks in large part to some of your suggestions! Today I’m sharing the “official” 3-phase plan!
With summer tomato season right around the corner, I thought it was high-time I share one of my favorite SUPER simple pasta salad recipes that is perfect this time of year — when fresh tomatoes and basil are readily available.
It tastes and smells like summer in a bowl and is a fabulous side dish to almost any meat!
Anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time knows my undying devotion to Meijer grocery stores… as well as the fact that I’ve never been a huge fan of Aldi grocery stores.
However, I finally decided to give Aldi a shot with a self-imposed one-month challenge to do as much of my grocery shopping at Aldi as I possibly could… today, I’m sharing the results!
Almost a FULL YEAR ago, I shared the first post in what I hoped would be a series of posts about all the simple home projects I do on a daily and weekly basis to keep my home neat enough, clean enough, organized enough, and efficient enough for my family and myself to enjoy spending the bulk of our time at home each day.
It was such a fun post to write and I was excited to write more… but then I didn’t write anything more… until today!
Kids + money has been a hot topic in the Dekker house these past few weeks, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share a recent Reader Question I got regarding how we handle kids and money!
Since our children are still so young, I definitely don’t feel like I have all the answers — so I’d love it if those of you with more experience in this area of parenting would enlighten us all in the comments!
Remember this past summer, when I spent hours upon hours (while 7-8 months pregnant) painting, moving furniture, installing closets, hanging decorations, and sewing bedding in an effort to transform our upstairs bedrooms for our kids?
Well, it only lasted about 5 months before the kids decided they ALL wanted to share a bedroom… today I’m sharing how we rearranged things to make that happen (and what we’re doing with the extra room in our house!)
I’ll be honest, I haven’t been overly aware of how much we’re spending in what categories over the past 6 months (I blame it on baby #4 arriving 5 months ago!)
However, curiosity got the best of me last month, so I quickly opened our Finance Tracking Workbooks for the last several years… and I was totally shocked at what I found!
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